You’re Pissing Off Your Customers and Google

Pri is probably the most friendly person in the office. However, don’t let that fool you; our operations manager knows her stuff, working with some of our biggest accounts.

Isn’t this year going by way too fast? In no time, it will be April 21! You will wake-up, have your cup of MoJo, and when you search for your product in Google (just to make sure you still have the first position), you may face a huge disappointment! Well, didn’t everyone say you need a mobile site? Why didn’t you pay attention?

Oh yeah, because you thought you are in the “sluggish” B2B world, your clients are only desktop users…they don’t need a mobile site! Or yeah, I looked at my Google Analytics account and we barely get 15% of our traffic from mobile devices. Why do I need a mobile site?

Well, regardless of your stats, you most definitely need a mobile site! Because this time, Google announced that it will be ranking mobile-friendly sites higher, preferring those sites who cater to changing technology. So now you just lost to the other smarter “listening” companies who decided to spend the extra dollars to get mobile-friendly websites.

Okay, now what should I do? Well, as you have done in past…play “catch-up” or wake-up and act now! I mean, you do have 2 weeks before the “official” changes take effect. Here’s where to start.

Step 1: test the pages

Since, it was made clear during a panel discussion at SMX West that Google will be ranking pages based on mobile-friendliness and not websites as a whole, you can test your pages here – Google Mobile Friendly Tool

If you do have Google Webmaster Tools, run your site to get a Mobile Usability Report.

(BTW, if you do not have a Google Webmaster tools account, run and get one. You will know how your site is performing on a daily basis in Google. I love it! You may want to read more about Google Webmaster Tools and Brand Strength.)

Both of these tests will equip you with a list of steps that can be taken to make the site mobile-friendly.

Step 2: make a plan

So, if you do not have the time and resources to make an entire site mobile-friendly or start from scratch, you can consider to make your top landing pages responsive. You can divide and conquer, and put an action plan together to eventually tackle all the pages on the site.

Step 3: implement

Look at the feedback from Step 1, and start implementing the recommendations. Some of them may be easy to change, some may require a developer. But, you need to start someplace!

Step 4: check again

Once the updates are made, remember to run the site and or pages as per Step 1.

Now, submit your sites to the search engines and wait. You should be better prepared for when the changes take place. Enjoy your MoJo!